Quinton de Kock won't be South Africa's Test captain, confirms Graeme Smith

Burdening De Kock by giving him the captaincy in all three formats will not be beneficial for the team, says Graeme Smith

Former Test skipper Graeme Smith was on Friday confirmed as South Africa's director of cricket -- and revealed that Quinton de Kock would not be made Test captain.
 
Jacques Faul, acting chief executive of Cricket South Africa, said Smith had been appointed for a two-year term, expiring at the end of March 2022. Smith was appointed in an acting capacity last December.
 
Smith, 39, captained South Africa in a world record 108 Test matches and in 149 one-day internationals. He also captained a World XI in a one-off Test against Australia in 2005/06.

 
"The one thing I can confirm is that Quinton will be our white-ball captain and he won't be the Test captain going forward," ESPN Cricinfo quoted Smith as saying.
 
"We want to keep Quinton fresh and playing well. I've always believed, having been in the job myself, that captaining all three formats is challenging. We've seen a number of nations trying to figure out what's best and I think across three formats, it probably doesn't work," he added.
 
Smith said burdening De Kock by giving him the captaincy in all three formats will not be beneficial for the team.
 
"From a workload and mental capacity, we felt that to burden him with all three formats wouldn't be beneficial for us. And with the style of personality and player that he is, we want to keep him as expressive as possible," Smith said.
 
Smith on South Africa’s T20 World Cup preparations
 
Smith said his immediate priority was the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November, assuming it happened as planned.
 
He said South Africa hoped to host a Twenty20 series against India in August as part of the build-up to the world event. "There is a lot of doubt about what the situation will be by then but we are in discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India," he said.
 
Faul said he expected more clarity on the status of the T20 World Cup to emerge when the International Cricket Council hosts a video discussion between national chief executives next Thursday.
 
Change of guards in Cricket South Africa
 
Smith's temporary appointment last December came at a time of crisis in South African cricket following the suspension of chief executive Thabang Moroe, calls for the board of CSA to resign and in the wake of a poor performance by the national team in the 2019 Cricket World Cup, followed by a 3-0 thrashing in a Test series in India.
 
One of Smith's first moves was to appoint former Test wicketkeeper and long-time teammate Mark Boucher as national head coach through to the 2023 World Cup.
 
The team has had mixed results since Boucher's appointment, losing Test series and Twenty20 series against England and Australia.
 
But they finished the 2019/20 season on a high, beating Australia 3-0 in an ODI series, shortly before cricket was shut down.